The article does touch on this. It's a more general issue of which NIMBY is only a part. In most usage, NIMBY is about building a tangible thing in a particular

The article does touch on this. It's a more general issue of which NIMBY is only a part. In most usage, NIMBY is about building a tangible thing in a particular place. What the author is talking about applies even when there's no tangible thing and no particular place - e.g. taxes or regulations that affect what we do or how we do them. I think of it as people saying they want some change X while precluding all ways of doing X. Consider the example of helping the poor. NIMBY: ...but I don't want to see or interact with them. Almost NIMBY: ...but not by providing them with housing or transportation other things that cost money. Not NIMBY (but still awful): ...but not by dealing with payday lenders and bank fees and punitive policing. Do you want to use "NIMBY" as convenient shorthand for all of these? That's fine with me, and consistent with your name here, but it is a shift from how the term is currently used. The difference is worth thinking about, instead of "just"-ing it away.